reconstructed city and its environment—particularly the coastal context, through the redevelopment of Le Havre’s seafront, of which he was a key contributor—Alexandre Chemetoff raises the question of boundaries and transitions, what Patrick Modiano calls “grey areas.” These are the open intervals within a project between what is already there and what is new. By shifting the focus of urbanism, architecture, and landscape design, he seeks to demonstrate, through concrete examples, how new possibilities for dialogue with reality can emerge.
Alexandre Chemetoff, an architect, urban planner, and landscape architect, has chosen to practice architecture in an open, free and committed manner. After combining professional practice with teaching, he decided, at the beginning of the 21st century, to devote himself exclusively to professional work, giving it a holistic dimension, with each project exploring new realities. His body of work was recognized with the Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme, awarded to him in 2000.
He founded the Bureau des Paysages in 1983, bringing together architects, urban planners, and landscape architects. The practice puts into action the art of creating from the existing conditions of places and things, producing built situations that are both vibrant and livable. Among their major achievements are the transformation in Nancy of the two largest housing “slab blocks” in France; the delivery of a major mixed-use program of offices, workshops, housing, and retail on the Île de Nantes—a project awarded the Équerre d’Argent in 2025; the realization in Nice of Season 2 of the Promenade du Paillon, conceived as an open-air cultural facility; and the redevelopment of Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris, which, adorned with its new features, will soon take its place among the great public squares of the capital.
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